European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton defended on Sunday the limitation on imports of so-called
“sensitive”
agricultural products imposed on Ukraine in order to protect European farmers.
“What we need is to find a balance and the proposed solution (a moratorium, Editor’s note) goes in the right direction
,” declared Thierry Breton on LCI.
“Of course, we support Ukraine. But Europe is also a balance and in this balance, there are our farmers
,” he further justified.
To try to respond to the anger of farmers, Brussels announced at the end of January for “sensitive”
products
– poultry, eggs and sugar – an
“emergency brake”
to limit the volume of imports to the average levels observed in 2022 and 2023 , levels beyond which customs duties would be reimposed.
At the beginning of February, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the mechanisms put in place to curb massive imports of Ukrainian poultry, sugar and eggs would also be extended to cereals, a key demand of the French cereal industry.
This
“reinforced safeguard mechanism”
will allow
“intervention”
in the event of destabilization of prices within the EU, with customs duties beyond certain
“ceilings”
, said Emmanuel Macron.